by Riccardo Affinati http://it.geocities.com/accademiawargame/ by Riccardo Affinati 2 Life's but a walking shadow ... It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signify nothing. W. Shakespeare HIGH COMMAND Grand tactical rules for the second World War Copyright 2005 - 2006 Richard Affinati Game Designer: Richard Affinati (ITALY) Graphics Wizard and Chief Playtester: Mike Patton (USA) Acknowledgments: Norman MacKenzie “Kiss Rommel” Luca Mazzamuto “Alto Comando” Lorenzo Sartori “Dadi & Piombo” Andrew Carless “Translations” Historical Background http://en.wikipedia.org/ QUESTIONS: Please direct any questions or comments about the game to: Riccardo Affinati: [email protected] CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION: http://it.geocities.com/accademiawargame/index.htm Dedication: HIGH COMMAND is dedicated as a token of remembrance to the soldiers of the Second World War. http://it.geocities.com/accademiawargame/ by Riccardo Affinati 3 clared war on Japan. On the same day, HIGH COMMAND China officially declared war against Ja- Grand tactical rules pan. Germany declared war on the Uni- for the second World War ted States on December 11, even though it was not obliged to do so under the Tri- GAME PHILOPHY partite Pact. Hitler hoped that Japan would support Germany by attacking the For many years we played Napoleonic Soviet Union. Japan did not oblige, and battles in such a tactical way that warga- this diplomatic move by Hitler proved a mers would never allow us to field more catastrophic blunder which unified the than a couple of Division per side. Then American public's support for the war. we discovered methods that allowed us to simulate entire battles without them Japan soon invaded the Philippines and getting too complicated. However today the British colonies of Hong Kong, Mala- that old destructive mentality still ruins ya, Borneo, and Burma, with the intention our Second World War games, preven- of seizing the oilfields of the Dutch East ting us from recreating entire battles. Indies. Despite fierce resistance by Ame- At the most, expert wargamers put a few rican, Philippine, British, Canadian, and more tanks and platoons on immense Indian forces, all these territories capitu- tables and worry about tactical problems lated to the Japanese in a matter of and the thickness of armour, without e- months. The British island fortress of Sin- xmaning the strategic or gaming aspects gapore was captured in what Churchill that are implicit in combats between in- considered one of the most humiliating fantry division and armoured brigades. British defeats of all time. With HIGH COMMAND we can play the entire Normandy landigs, or even the battles on the Russian Front or in Africa. Richard Affinati HISTORICAL BACKGROUND In the summer of 1941, the United States began an oil embargo against Japan, which was a protest of Japan's incursion into French Indo-China and the conti- nued invasion of China. Japan planned an attack on Pearl Harbor to cripple the U.S. Pacific Fleet before consolidating oil fields in the Dutch East Indies. On De- cember 7, a Japanese carrier fleet laun- ched a surprise air attack on Pearl Har- bor, Hawaii. The raid resulted in two U.S. battleships sunk, and six damaged but later repaired and returned to service. The raid failed to find any aircraft carriers and did not damage Pearl Harbor's use- The American Battleships USS West Virginia and USS Tennessee under attack at Pearl Harbor. fulness as a naval base. The attack strongly united public opinion in the Uni- ted States against Japan. The following day, December 8, the United States de- http://it.geocities.com/accademiawargame/ by Riccardo Affinati 4 Deadlock: 1942. On February 19, 1942, Roosevelt signed United States Executive Order 9066, leading to the in- ternment of approximately 110,000 Japa- nese-Americans for the duration of the war. In April, the Doolittle Raid, the first U.S. air raid on Tokyo, boosted morale in the U.S. and caused Japan to shift resources to homeland defence, but did little actual damage. In early May, a Japanese naval invasion of Port Moresby, New Guinea, was U.S. Marines rest in the field on Guadalcanal, circa thwarted by Allied navies in the Battle of August-December 1942. the Coral Sea. This was both the first successful opposition to a Japanese at- In late August and early September, whi- tack and the first battle fought between le battle raged on Guadalcanal, an am- aircraft carriers. phibious Japanese attack on the eastern tip of New Guinea was met by Australian A month later, on June 5, American car- forces in the Battle of Milne Bay. rier-based dive-bombers sank four of Ja- pan's best aircraft carriers in the Battle of War turns: 1943. On January 2, 1943, Midway. Historians mark this battle as a Buna, New Guinea was captured by the turning point and the end of Japanese Allies. This ended the threat to Port Mo- expansion in the Pacific. Cryptography resby. By January 22, 1943, the Allied played an important part in the battle, as forces had achieved their objective of i- the United States had broken the Japa- solating Japanese forces in eastern New nese naval codes and knew the Japane- Guinea and cutting off their main line of se plan of attack. supply. In July, a Japanese overland attack on American authorities declared Guadalca- Port Moresby was led along the rugged nal secure on February 9. Australian and Kokoda Track. An outnumbered and un- U.S. forces undertook the prolonged trained Australian battalion defeated the campaign to retake the occupied parts of 5,000-strong Japanese force, the first the Solomon Islands, New Guinea and land defeat of Japan in the war and one the Dutch East Indies, experiencing so- of the most significant victories in Austra- me of the toughest resistance of the war. lian military history. The rest of the Solomon Islands were re- taken in 1943. On August 7, United States Marines be- gan the Battle of Guadalcanal. For the In November, U.S. Marines won the Bat- next six months, U.S. forces fought Japa- tle of Tarawa. This was the first heavily nese forces for control of the island. Me- opposed amphibious assault in the Paci- anwhile, several naval encounters raged fic theater. The high casualties taken by in the nearby waters, including the Battle the Marines sparked off a storm of pro- of Savo Island, Battle of Cape Esperan- test in the United States, where the large ce, Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, and Bat- losses could not be understood for such tle of Tassafaronga. a tiny and seemingly unimportant island. http://it.geocities.com/accademiawargame/ by Riccardo Affinati 5 The Nationalist Kuomintang Army, under ping up operations continued long after Chiang Kai-shek, and the Communist the Battle of Guam was officially over. Chinese Army, under Mao Zedong, both The island of Tinian was invaded on July opposed the Japanese occupation of 24 and was conquered on August 1. This China but never truly allied against the was the first use of napalm in the war. Japanese. Conflict between Nationalist and Communist forces emerged long be- fore the war; it continued after and, to an extent, even during the war, though more implicitly. The Japanese and its auxiliary Indian National Army had captured most of Burma, severing the Burma Road by which the Western Allies had been sup- plying the Chinese Nationalists. This for- ced the Allies to create a large sustained airlift, known as "flying the Hump". U.S.- led and trained Chinese divisions, a Bri- tish division and a few thousand U.S. MacArthur coming ashore back to the Philippines. ground troops cleared the Japanese for- ces from northern Burma so that the Le- General MacArthur's troops invaded the do Road could be built to replace the Philippines, landing on the island of Le- Burma Road. yte on October 20. The Japanese had prepared a rigorous defense and used Beginning of end: 1944. The American the last of their naval forces in an attempt advance continued in the southwest Pa- to destroy the invasion force in the Battle cific with the capture of the Marshall I- of Leyte Gulf, October 23 through Octo- slands before the end of February. ber 26, 1944, arguably the largest naval 42,000 U.S. Army soldiers and U.S. Mari- battle in history. This was the first battle nes landed on Kwajalein atoll on January that had kamikaze attacks. Throughout 31. Fierce fighting occurred, and the i- 1944, American submarines and aircraft sland was taken on February 6. U.S. Ma- attacked Japanese merchant shipping rines next defeated the Japanese in the and deprived Japan's industry of the raw Battle of Eniwetok. materials it had gone to war to obtain. The main objective was the Mariana I- The effectiveness of this stranglehold in- slands, especially Saipan and to a lesser creased as U.S. Marines captured i- extent, Guam. The Japanese in both pla- slands closer to the Japanese mainland. ces were strongly entrenched. On June In 1944, submarines sank three million 11, Saipan was bombarded from the sea tons of cargo, while the Japanese were and a landing was made four days later; only able to replace less than one million it was captured by July 9. The Japanese tons. In March 1944, the Japanese be- committed much of their declining naval gan their "march to Delhi" by crossing the strength in the Battle of the Philippine border from Burma into India. On March Sea but suffered severe losses in both 30, they attacked the town of Imphal ships and aircraft.